# Why did Fox dump the second season of Bob's Burgers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140 "2013-06-28T17:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/1 "2013-06-28T17:09:36Z")
It’s one of their current line-up and it seems moderately successful. So why are they dumping on its dvd release? For those who didn’t know, the second season was released on dvd last month. And it would be easy not to know because they didn’t release it in stores. It was released as a dvd-r. That’s the format where you order it online and they burn you a copy. You end up with low quality recordings on second rate discs in cheap packages that won’t play on many devices. They’re asking us to pay premium prices for what are essentially bootlegs. I see they’re also doing this with the third season of The Cleveland Show but I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of that show. Is this all just part of Fox’s ongoing efforts to be Evil? ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/2 "2013-06-28T17:15:36Z")
Isn’t it on the Flix anyway maybe they just don’t think it’s worth producing all the DVDs if sales aren’t projected high enough at least you can buy it better than nothing ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/3 "2013-06-28T17:31:49Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Isn’t it on the Flix anyway > > maybe they just don’t think it’s worth producing all the DVDs if sales aren’t projected high enough > > at least you can buy it better than nothing Unless something has changed very recently Season 2 was never added to Netflix-- which is bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/4 "2013-06-28T17:54:51Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > Unless something has changed very recently Season 2 was never added to Netflix-- which is bizarre. The second season was up on Netflix streaming as of a month ago. Maybe check again? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/5 "2013-06-28T18:22:01Z")
I could have sworn the second season was up months ago because I definitely remember going on a mini-binge at the beginning of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/6 "2013-06-28T18:59:31Z")
DVD sales have dropped pretty badly over the last few years, box sets even more so. [An article from 2011 discussing lower DVD sales](http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/05/12/a-slow-painful-death-for-dvds). Mostly due to streaming (and probably torrenting), plus the fad of collecting a library of discs has definitely fallen amongst the general public. In addition, studios usually consider the first-season release on DVD a trial run to see if future seasons will be worthwhile; any number of series have had the first seasons released just to have future releases cancelled (my own pet peeve was having the cartoon Exosquad only receive the first season). Sales drop for each subsequent season, so evidently the first season sales weren’t high enough for Fox to risk pressing the second season, which involves guesswork on how big a print run would be needed. Bigger print runs mean lower per-unit costs, so probably Fox calculated that a lower print run would increase per-unit pressing costs enough to make any profit low and potentially be a loss if sales are lower than forecasted. Burn-on-demand almost entirely obviates whatever the design/pressing costs are for DVDs; come up with a single-sided “cover” that can be churned out on a color printer when an order comes in(and can probably be hacked out by a graphic designer in a day), chuck the DVD-Rs and “cover” in a standard blank case… total cost a few pennies, and they’re guaranteed to only have to burn enough to meet demand. Profit might still be low for season two sales, but each sale is still a guaranteed profit (once that cover’s graphic designer’s salary is paid). Sales in the low hundreds would almost certainly cover it, then the rest is profit. ---
**Author:** ![BungiePhantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@BungiePhantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BungiePhantom)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/7 "2013-06-28T19:10:03Z")
Yep streaming is totally killing the dvd market, and Hollywood is beginning to adapt to it in ways that will kill us softly starring the Fugees ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/8 "2013-06-28T21:08:23Z")
So how are people saving their streamed stuff for later viewing? Or do they just not care about watching it later? ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/9 "2013-06-28T21:23:07Z")
> [@BungiePhantom](#): > > Yep streaming is totally killing the dvd market, and Hollywood is beginning to adapt to it in ways that will kill us softly starring the Fugees “One time…” ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/10 "2013-06-28T21:29:42Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > So how are people saving their streamed stuff for later viewing? Or do they just not care about watching it later? You stream it again later, if it’s still available. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/11 "2013-06-28T21:33:07Z")
> [@BungiePhantom](#): > > Yep streaming is totally killing the dvd market, and Hollywood is beginning to adapt to it in ways that will kill us softly starring the Fugees The studios presumably sold the streaming rights to Netflix and other services. They should have taken the loss of future dvd sales into account. What annoys me is the bootleg analogy I made. I could, after all, access media through cheaper albeit illegal means. But I’ve always tried to buy legitimate products. Now it seems the studios are exploring the idea of lowering themselves down to bootleg quality - but without offering cheaper bootleg prices. It’s like they calling us idiots if we don’t just switch to bootlegging. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/12 "2013-06-29T09:50:58Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > You stream it again later, if it’s still available. I don’t do streaming, because it’s useless if your internet connection goes out or just doesn’t happen to be fast enough at that moment. (Every time there are thunderstorms in a 20-mile radius, my connection goes down randomly for periods of up to 10 minutes at a time). Plus, of course, the content provider might just yank it randomly for any reason or none and there’s dick-all you can do about it. That’s why I’ll stick with DVDs or downloading the whole show as long as that’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/13 "2013-06-29T12:31:10Z")
The death of DVDs would mean the death of special features, wouldn’t it? I love my special features! ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/14 "2013-06-29T13:23:36Z")
> [@BungiePhantom](#): > > Yep streaming is totally killing the dvd market, and Hollywood is beginning to adapt to it in ways that will kill us softly starring the Fugees No it’s not. DVDs killed the DVD market. Movie studios plumbed their back catalog for anything and everything they could release on DVD and the number of pre-1997 films that aren’t available on DVD is vanishingly small. This was all because only a handful of titles could be bought back in the video days and people liked having a big collection. But, aside from new movies, the people have bought all the movies they want. Enter Blu-ray, the studios tried to get us to rebuy everything again. Only, this time, it didn’t work so well because a lot of people already have massive DVD collections and, this is important, the jump from DVD to Blu-ray isn’t half as impressive as the jump from video to DVD. But don’t worry, there will likely be physical discs for a few decades more (look at the outcry when MS tried to kill physical discs in their next video game console). But some of them will be distributed in odd formats like this MOD DVD-R thing. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/15 "2013-06-29T15:15:46Z")
My personal belief is that this is just another brick in the wall of big entertainment companies committing suicide. The big money people in the entertainment industry are in distribution and they’re locked into the model of putting the distributors ahead of the creators and consumers. But it’s a dying model. Technology is continuously invented new ways to link creators and consumers together more directly and reducing the need for distributors. As companies that derive their revenue from their control of distribution, the big companies are fighting this and trying to preserve the old models. But I don’t see how they can win the fight in the long run. Eventually there will be a general backlash against their enforced archaicness. The alternative models will be legalized. Consumers will be able to buy entertainment more directly from creators without paying the distribution mark-up. The lowered cost of entertainment will mean consumers can buy more entertainment. Creators will benefit because they’ll be collecting the majority of the income from their entertainment instead of the pittance left after the distributors took their cut - and they’ll be selling more entertainment as well. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/16 "2013-06-29T15:24:43Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > No it’s not. DVDs killed the DVD market. > > Movie studios plumbed their back catalog for anything and everything they could release on DVD and the number of pre-1997 films that aren’t available on DVD is vanishingly small. This was all because only a handful of titles could be bought back in the video days and people liked having a big collection. But, aside from new movies, the people have bought all the movies they want. > > Enter Blu-ray, the studios tried to get us to rebuy everything again. Only, this time, it didn’t work so well because a lot of people already have massive DVD collections and, this is important, the jump from DVD to Blu-ray isn’t half as impressive as the jump from video to DVD. > > But don’t worry, there will likely be physical discs for a few decades more (look at the outcry when MS tried to kill physical discs in their next video game console). But some of them will be distributed in odd formats like this MOD DVD-R thing. Not sure if you & I discussed this in another thread, but I would not count on optical discs being around _“for a few decades more…”_, not at all! Blu-ray will definitely be the last physical release medium of any kind, and since DVDs are proving to not be nearly as ‘hardy’ as CDs (a scratch can render them unplayable) don’t expect existing ones to hang around too long either. Everything will move to streaming, including eventually ubiquitous HD \*wireless \*streaming. It cannot be overstated how much cheaper streaming is for content providers over disc mass-production, distribution & sale. The telecom companies paid for all the billions of infrastructure, and now the content providers can (and will!) take full advantage of it. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/17 "2013-06-29T15:29:02Z")
I’m really surprised anyone cares about this. I haven’t owned a DVD player in a few years. All my media viewing is either streamed or watched from digital downloads (Amazon or iTunes). Basically, I buy series that I like (Mad Men, Walking Dead, Archer) and just wait for everything else to become available online to stream. No more pulling a disc out years later that won’t play due to unforseen damage. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/18 "2013-06-29T15:37:34Z")
Seems to me the consumer would be all too happy to get hard-copy video delivered in some sort of SDHC format. I am almost surprised that no one has started making SD-R cards for making permanent archives (a single card could easily be burned successively instead of all at once). ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/19 "2013-06-29T19:59:17Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Not sure if you & I discussed this in another thread, but I would not count on optical discs being around _“for a few decades more…”_, not at all! Blu-ray will definitely be the last physical release medium of any kind, and since DVDs are proving to not be nearly as ‘hardy’ as CDs (a scratch can render them unplayable) don’t expect existing ones to hang around too long either. Everything will move to streaming, including eventually ubiquitous HD \*wireless \*streaming. It cannot be overstated how much cheaper streaming is for content providers over disc mass-production, distribution & sale. The telecom companies paid for all the billions of infrastructure, and now the content providers can (and will!) take full advantage of it. Just as I say with e-books, without physical media, doesn’t that give the content provider complete control over distribution and (most importantly) possession? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140/20 "2013-06-30T00:01:34Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > I’m really surprised anyone cares about this. I haven’t owned a DVD player in a few years. All my media viewing is either streamed or watched from digital downloads (Amazon or iTunes). > > Basically, I buy series that I like (Mad Men, Walking Dead, Archer) and just wait for everything else to become available online to stream. No more pulling a disc out years later that won’t play due to unforseen damage. The problem with that is you’re dependent on what companies want to stream. By taking reasonable care, I can be sure any movie I own will be there in the future when I want it. I don’t have to hope that some company will be out there willing to show it to me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-fox-dump-the-second-season-of-bobs-burgers/662140.md?page=2)